Mexico's electoral court will name ruling party conservative Felipe Calderon president-elect on Tuesday, rejecting claims the fiercely disputed July 2 vote was unfair, sources said. Losing left-wing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has alleged widespread vote-rigging, but the seven electoral court judges tossed out his fraud claims last week and they are to deliver their final ruling on Tuesday. Sources close to the court said on Monday the magistrates would declare the election process was clean, give a final vote count and confirm Calderon's razor-thin victory. "Everything appears to indicate the vote will be unanimous," one of the sources told Reuters. ... http://abcnews.go.com

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said Wednesday that he refused to have any direct contact with Israel, and Israel should forget about friendly relations between the two countries. "Lebanon will be the last Arab country that could sign a peace agreement with Israel," he said at a news conference in Beirut. "Let it be clear, we are not seeking any agreement until there is just and comprehensive peace based on the Arab initiative." He was referring to a plan that came out of a 2002 Arab League summit in Beirut. It calls for Israel to return all territories it conquered in the 1967 Mideast war, for the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and for a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem — all in exchange for peace and full normalization of Arab relations with Israel. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/30/world/main1948568.shtml?source=RSS&attr=World_1948568

Dan Silverthorn had just touched down when his single-engine Beech C23 jolted violently and careered off the runway on its belly in a shower of sparks. From the air, the veteran pilot couldn't tell that the runway at Higginsville, Mo., had a fresh layer of pavement that ended abruptly, creating an 8-inch ledge that ripped the landing gear from his plane like the pull-tab from a sardine can. "I never really had time to get scared," Silverthorn said. "It happened so fast." The Missouri businessman's experience last October is not uncommon. The National Transportation Safety Board has documented at least 15 similar occurrences since 1992 at airports where runway or taxiway construction projects were under way or newly completed. Silverthorn and his daughter ended up safe in a grass field, but others weren't as fortunate. The latest involved Comair Flight 5191 and its attempted takeoff early on the morning of Aug. 27 at Lexington's Blue Grass Airport. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2392907

The United States and Iraq hope to sign an agreement by next week to hand operational command of Iraq's new army to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq said on Monday, after wrangles on wording had held up the accord. A day after the government hailed the arrest of al Qaeda in Iraq's purported deputy head as a coup against insurgents, the bodies of 33 men, some with their hands bound and bearing signs of torture, were found in Baghdad, and foreign forces announced the death of four Americans and two British soldiers.South of the capital, the U.S.-trained Iraqi army said it killed 14 suspected insurgents who had been plotting to attack Shi'ite pilgrims, a popular tactic by Sunni militants whom U.S. and Iraqi officials accuse of spreading sectarian civil war.A player for one of Iraq's biggest soccer clubs was kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad just days before he was due to sign a transfer to a Syrian club, an Iraqi official said....http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060904/ts_nm/iraq_dc

Russian special services on Monday freed all hostages who were being held by inmates at a Moscow prison, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the head of Russia's prison service."The special operation to free the hostages took place over just one and half minutes. All the hostages have been freed and no-one was injured," Yuri Kalinin, the head of Russia's prison service said, Interfax reported. "The soldiers worked brilliantly," Kalinin said. Three inmates had seized as many as 15 hostages, including a chief warden and his deputy, the prison service said. The inmates had demanded a review of their trials for serious crimes including murder. The incident started when three inmates taking their afternoon walk attacked prison officials. They then barricaded themselves in a one of the rooms in the prison. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2392781

Two US warplanes accidentally strafed their own forces in southern Afghanistan on Mon, killing 1 Canadian soldier and seriously wounding 5 others, NATO and the US military said. A British soldier attached to NATO was also killed in a Kabul suicide bombing, which left another 4 Afghans dead on Mon, NATO and Afghan officials said. 16 suspected Taliban militants and 5 Afghan police died in separate Afghan violence. The intense fighting comes amid Afghanistan's deadliest spate of violence since US-led forces toppled the hard-line Taliban regime for hosting al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 attacks nearly 5 years ago. The "friendly fire" incident occurred during a NATO-led anti-Taliban operation in Kandahar province's Panjwayi district after ground troops requested air support, NATO said. NATO said in a statement that the International Security Assistance Force provided the support but "regrettably engaged friendly forces during a strafing run, using cannons."...http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09-04-afghan-nato_x.htm?csp=34